I was a little harsh on my knitting group in a few posts ago… I love them, I really do. My plan was to follow the post with one about my Sunrise Circle Cardigan (unblogged so far) and talk about how great their advice was… But I haven’t yet finished the cardigan and today we went to the Fiber Event (which sounds like geriatric hell) in Greencastle, Indiana, a few counties over from Bloomington. It was fun….

There was some animal fondling…

There was some questioning and learning…

And of course… the haul. (Don’t worry, that’s not all mine. Only the stuff on the bottom in the paper bag). We carpooled and thought we should get a shot of all the yarn. It was a lot. All the drunk kids who saw us photographing this probably thought we were photographing our collection of hard alcohol or something.

Here’s the stuff I got:

The red stuff was WAY too cheap to pass up (1.20 an ounce)… and the blue stuff to the left of it was FREE with purchase. Absurd. The two pretty skeins in the middle are Briar Rose Fibers… I LOVE her stuff. I tried to resist (I even walked away), but resistance was futile. To left, I have a few small skeins of shetland that will become some stripy fair-isle mittens. The wooden piece is another random weird thing I can have in my apartment so people can ask me “what the hell is this??” (it’s a nostepinne for making center pull balls). I bought a small bag of fiber to make some fiber-covered soap and I also bought some new dye (that I can’t normally buy from Knitpicks). Not a bad haul… particularly because I spent less than 80$. Not bad.

Anyway. I went to this “event” two years ago and it was fun… but not nearly as much fun as it was with these fine women. It’s nice having a group of friends who aren’t associated with my job or school.

I was tagged in a Meme… by Huan Hua, from my knitting group… so I have to do it … 😉

Out of the top 50 yarns on Ravelry (by number of projects):Bold the ones you’ve used and would use again,Cross out the ones you’ve used and would not use again,
and italicize the ones you’ve never tried, but would like to.
Add comments as desired, and then pass the meme along to 5 knitters/crocheters.
Link back to this post and to the person who tagged you.

So, I have this new knitting group. It’s pretty f’ing awesome… except for one thing. Everyone at my group always has such cool stuff… and my knitting ADD prevents me from finishing objects at a pace with which I can also brag. It seems like every week someone has something new to show off… except me. It’s really quite a problem and it makes me feel insecure. I’ve contemplated doing the whole “one project at a time” rule, but I’m just not sure if that’s realistic. So, in a bit of a fit of inspiration, I make a scarf. A rather nice scarf, actually:

It’s a basic scarf pattern, one you’ve seen millions of because of the inspiration of Jared of Brooklyntweed.

I liked the scarf though. It’s probably the warmest scarf I own, totally versatile (look at those colors!) and it goes great with both my corduroy and denim jackets. And it was a delight to knit. It’s one of those patterns where you keep say “oh, just two more rows” or “let me get into the purple and then I’ll stop” and then before you know it, you’re done!

Specifics (I want to be lazy and just link to my ravelry page, but not everyone’s on ravelry.)

Yarn: Lamb’s Pride Worsted in Black. Plymouth Boku in a warm, mix of colorsNeedles: US 7s, BambooTime Spent Knitting: One weekend (started Friday night, finished Sunday night)Pattern: See links to Jared’s page aboveMods: None.Love: Tons. It’s definitely not the softest scarf – but it’ll definitely be something I reach for on those windy days.Regret: I wish I’d bought more of the Boku in that colorway. I wanted to take advantage of the color changing and make a set of winter wear… with maybe some mittens like this. I should know better. Always err on the side of too much yarn. *stupid, stupid, stupid.

Also – super kudos to the first person who can correctly NAME the part of the IU campus where I took these photos. It actually has a name, not just “over there by that one building.”

When I was sharing my mitts with my knitting group we started to talk about how we catch our floats. I showed everyone who I caught my floats and got some intrigued looks. I think that the way that I catch the main color (held in my right hand) is a little different than the way some people do it. You can see after the part about how I wrap the contrasting color (held in my left hand), which is probably the way most people do it.

Um. So I hope this is helpful – and just so you know, all the videos I’ve made/will make are also up on the helpful videos tab.

I had so much fun at my knitting group last night! We’re a fun bunch. Last night there was Elli, Leigh, Kalani, Huan-Hua, and Kathrina, all people who I would not know if it were not for knitting (I like being able to go and turn off my job, turn off schoolwork and turn off stress). It was great. I was working on my last bird-in-hand mitten and professing my love for the pair.

At one point, I was explaining how much I love them and that if it were possible, I would marry these mittens. Of course, someone mentioned how such ambiphilia (love having to do with mittens and gloves, a word I made up just now) was illegal in most states. *laugh. (I know, that was a bad joke.)

Then… I kept messing up the chart and the colorwork. I missed some increases on the thumb gusset, clearly because the company was so great. In expressing my frustration, I whined, as usual. I also exclaimed that obviously I had gotten married too soon. Then, in a bit of perfect comedic timing, Leigh piped in that we should have lived together first. It was funny. Probably in a way that only knitters can truly appreciate.

Anyway…

Another reason why I like having real live knitters to talk with is because we can be crazy together (like above). Last night, we talked about how sometimes, we stay up really late because we want to finish a project. Last night, I was seriously contemplating staying up to finish the mittens – particularly because I had an 8 am meeting that I knew would involve a freezing transport to and from. But I did the math and I would have had to stay up until like 3 am… and with an early meeting, that was just not a good idea.

So, I went to my meeting. And then I came back and had 2 hours before meeting number two. So I knitted on the mittens a bit and got to the last thumb. And then I came back and had 2.5 hours before an inservice training session thing. So I knit some more. I pretty much finished the pair! And I got to wear them to my inservice thing and brag to everyone. It was great. One girl even said that I could walk into American Eagle and buy them for like 20$ (she meant that as a compliment).

The Details:

Pattern: Bird in Hand Mittens, By Kate Gilbert.
Yarn: Cascade 220 in two colors carried by my LYS that matched my jacket.
Needles: (and therefore size) – 3 aluminum
Time to knit: First one didn’t really get fair amounts of work until about 1/10/07. While it is true that I started them before christmas, Christmas knitting and some test knitting prevented me from doing anything productive on them. The second one I finished in about 4 days.
Mods: I did the braids a little different on the second mitten (much easier in fact). Look for a tutorial later today or sometime tomorrow.

Again, I’m going to be posting a “helpful” post on these mittens next, so be sure to check it out! In the meantime, now that I have some mittens, I’m now back in the knitters club.

This is definitely the MOST bad-ass thing I’ve ever knit. Check it out:

This was the first pattern in… the history of me knitting that was worth lining. If I was going to do this, I was going to do this right. And oh, how right it turned out! The knitting itself was pretty fun… the pattern grows in a real cool progression, so it’s a really fun knit. I had to re-knit the gusset (after going 1/2 way and realizing that the stitch count was supposed to increase a bit – oops!) and while it’s shorter than the pattern calls for, it’s perfectly functional. And check out the inside…

I love it, love it, love it. I’m going out to dinner tonight and I cannot wait to bring this and get tons of compliments! You’ll notice that this bag has a nice inside… and a zipper…

Yea, I bought a sewing machine. I know, I know, kind of an expensive impulse buy – but I had some extra christmas money and its one of those things that a crafter should have… and it’s the reason why I haven’t done the steeking thing (which is the one remaining knitting technique I haven’t done – that I can think of anyway).

I had some trouble with getting the sewing machine going. I kept getting the bobbin thread stuck. Luckily one of the RAs I work with has LOTS of experience with a sewing machine and since she owed me, she helped me out. I even sewed the zipper to the knit piece! I’m like a sewing fool now 🙂

I know you probably want some more details, but I wanted to give you another photo to drool at.

Pattern: Brea Bag a free pattern from Berroco
Designer: Norah Gaughan
Yarn: 2 hand dyed skeins of Lion Brand Lion Wool
Needles: US 7
Lining: An old skirt that I had from a few years ago
Strap: Thiefed from old Target handbag
Button: From the stash! yay for buttons!
Pattern Mods: The gusset was worked 1 stitch narrower and shorter than the pattern called for
Time: Cast-on Wednesday, Bind off and other finishing done by 4 am last night (yea, I know that was pretty late… I’ll pay for that later, I’m sure).

Howdy!

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